Maurice Thorez

Maurice Thorez (28 April 1900-11 July 1964) was the leader of the French Communist Party from 1930 to 1964 and Vice Premier of France from 1946 to 1947.

Biography
Maurice Thorez was born in Noyelles-Godault, France on 28 April 1900, and he joined the French Section of the Workers' International in 1919. Thorez became party secretary in 1923 and Secretary-General in 1930, leading the French Communist Party. Thorez was supported by Joseph Stalin, and Thorez helped in the formation of a popular front that united communist and socialist political parties in preparation for the 1936 elections, which the popular front leader Leon Blum won. When World War II broke out in 1939, the PCF supported Nazi Germany due to its alliance with the Soviet Union under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and Thorez deserted to the USSR before he could be drafted into the French Army, leading to him being sentenced to death in absentia. In November 1944, he returned to France after it was liberated from Nazi occupation, and Charles de Gaulle had him pardoned. Stalin had Thorez order the disbanding of communist militias after the liberation, as he wanted the PCF to take power legally, and Thorez was elected Vice Premier in 1946. The PCF supported imperialism in French Indochina during the late 1940s, and Thorez remained an important political leader in France for years. He died of a stroke in the USSR in 1964.